PB Week: Stirling Castle, Scottish dancing and Sir Bob Geldof

Andrew Tjaardstra, editor, Professional Broking

Last week's blog came from the thick of the action at the BIBA conference. On the Thursday night of the conference, I was whisked off to Stirling Castle for some Scottish dancing and haggis with brokers, journalists and the top team at Groupama, writes Andrew Tjaardstra, editor of Professional Broking.

We were told there are over 700 variations of Scottish dancing and I left convinced that much of these supposed dances are made up on the spot, however it is great fun (for at least the first half an hour and after a few wee whiskies!). Cathie Bruce, Groupama's distribution and customer services director, was in her element and there were rumours the whole event was arranged in her honour. An interesting case of conflicts of interest arose when David Newman, managing director of Carole Nash won one of the prizes in the charity raffle!

Sir Bob

Alas the BIBA conference had to end, and it was no less than Sir (note to Eric Galbraith) Bob Geldof closing it. Love him or not, he certainly has a fearsome intellect. Geldof said that now is the time to try and create the right environment in Africa for entrepreneurs to flourish, and said insurers need to develop political risk products in order to help those who wanted to invest in Africa. He also name dropped about meeting a certain Mr George Bush. At the dinner table a lady told a story about being bitten by a python and then finding there was no medication at the hospital. She told the President that she heard a voice telling her everything was going to be OK - asking the President if he knew what she meant, he apparently replied that he hadn't because he'd never been bitten by a python before.

Endsleigh

Finally, why have Endsleigh decided to close all its branches? Patrick Smith, chief executive of Swinton, is baffled and Barclays Private Equity has only just bought another high street chain A-Plan. I am surprised, as Endsleigh is where I bought my life insurance and part of the reason why was because they had a local branch which I used to pass everyday. We might not go into them, but it is nice to know they are there - and on the high street (and thus providing an effective marketing tool). In a statement Endsleigh said: "The board believes that continued investment in Endsleigh's already established web based offering, supported by an expansion of UK call centre operations, will greatly strengthen the company's market position going forward. Over 80% of Endsleigh's enquiries originate from the internet and this figure is anticipated to increase further."

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